3. Spatial Metaphor Usage of by 4

3.1 Spatial Usage of by 4

3.1.1 Static Spatial Usage of by 4

3.1.2 Dynamic Spatial Usage of by 4

3.2 Non-Spatial(Spatial Metaphor) Usage of by 4

3.2.1 Time Domain 5

3.2.2 Reason Domain 5

3.2.3 Way/ Tool Domain 5

3.2.4 Attitude domain 5

4. The Implications and Influence 6

4.1.To Culture 6

4.2 To English Language Learning 6

5. Conclusion 6

References 7

1. Introduction

1.1 Background of the Study

It is widely acknowledged that although English prepositions are small in number compared with numerous nouns, verbs and adjectives, they are used actively and frequently. Hence, the acquisition of English preposition is quite a tough task for English learners, as it is one of the most difficult items to learn. Here in this paper, we only discuss one kind of English preposition- spatial preposition which must have some relation with space literally. 

The most frequently used spatial prepositions we know are “in” “at” “through” “on” “over” “by”, etc. They both have spatial meanings, for example, “in the sky”, “under the roof”, “over the city” or “by the river”, these are spatial usage of English prepositions that contains oriental meanings; the other side of shield, prepositions may spread their common spatial levels to spatial metaphor domains, like way, degree, location, time, or even amount domain, for instance, “in two minutes”, “on the weekend” or “under the pressure”, etc.

The study of spatial metaphor of English prepositions has been a hot issue abidingly. Early in 1980, Lakoff and Johnson pressed a book named Metaphor We Lived by, which first attracted people’s attention of metaphor in the perspective of cognitive linguistics. According to their theory, metaphor can be pided into three types, structural metaphor, spatial metaphor and ontological metaphor. Later in 1999, Gibbs declared that the biggest difficulty for researchers to study metaphor is to tell the difference between the process of metaphor and the products of metaphor. Besides the efforts the western people have made, many intelligent Chinese scholars also have generated their views and published journals and papers of this field. Wang Boran(2007) took at, on, in as examples and stated the cognitive theory of spatial metaphor as well as its significance; Hu Taohui(2008) had a study on spatial metaphor from the cognitive perspective, taking though as an example; Peng Zhiyong(2010) did much research on with under the guide of prototype categorization theory. We have an overview of studies both from home and aboard on English prepositions like though, in, up and down are in great amount. However, the researches and studies on by are rarely seen. This paper will conduct the study of by in different domains of both its spatial and non-spatial usages.

This paper is a brief study of spatial metaphor and spatial preposition by. I would explain two basic concepts, spatial metaphor and spatial preposition including definitions and different views both from cognitive and pragmatic aspects. Then a specific example will help us to better understand it- the spatial usage of by as well as non-spatial usages are detailed stated. Finally coming out the main findings, its influence to culture and learning spatial prepositions.